Peterborough’s bid for £25m has been submitted to the government after Peterborough was chosen as one of the 100 towns and cities it wants to invest in through its Towns Fund.
For the past six months, the newly formed Peterborough Town Board has been working on a detailed application for part of the £3.6 billion fund announced by the government at the end of 2019.
The bid to government includes funding to support a range of projects in areas such as urban regeneration, planning, land use, connectivity, skills, and enterprise infrastructure. Views and opinions were obtained from organisations and individuals across the city.
Building on the successes of Fletton Quays and the new Peterborough University, the application seeks to support the planned future growth of Peterborough, while ensuring the wellbeing of its residents, boosting visitor numbers, and adhering to the city’s pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030.
If successful, the money will be spent on projects in five key areas, building upon the recently published development framework.
- Riverside Development and Connections – Creating a masterplan for the Embankment, the new University campus and Middleholme that protects the quality of open green space, and designing and building an additional bridge across the river for pedestrians and cyclists, connecting the north and south of the city.
- New and improved visitor and cultural attractions – Creating new library and cultural facilities for the city, and improved visitor attractions, including a national Bronze Age themed extension to the Town Museum and a lakeside activity centre at Ferry Meadows.
- Opening up the Station Quarter – Creating a welcoming route from the city’s train station into the city centre to make this journey easy for visitors to navigate by foot or bike and creating space for the development of new homes and offices.
- Enterprise and Skills infrastructure – The creation of a new enterprise training and business incubation hub to support new city businesses and start-ups, and a training centre for green technology skills aimed towards the construction and automotive sectors.
- Future green city – Creating safer, easily accessible pedestrian and cycle routes to the train station and city centre from key sites around the city, and better public realm spaces to support the wellbeing of residents and help the city to move towards the goal of becoming carbon neutral.
Peterborough is in the first group of cities to submit applications. It is expected that the government will review these over the next two months and make decisions on bids this autumn, following which a Town Deal will be agreed to enable funding to be released for the detailed development and implementation of approved projects.
Matthew Bradbury, independent chair of the Peterborough Towns Board, said, ‘The time really is now for Peterborough. Our economy has begun to bounce back from the lockdown. Investment in Peterborough continues to be strong, with a lot of new development planned or already underway. The Towns Fund offers an opportunity to develop the infrastructure the city will need to support its growth, promote the wellbeing of residents, encourage further business investment, and move the city closer to its goal of becoming carbon neutral.’
Councillor John Holdich, leader of Peterborough City Council, said, ‘We want to build a Peterborough for the future, one that our children and grandchildren can be proud to live in. Our city has a rich heritage and a diverse, yet unified, population. With government funding support we can make our community even stronger and create a city of growth, prosperity and opportunity.’
